Showtimes:
Fri, 11 Sept @ 7.15pm ** (Special Screening)
Sat, 12 Sept @ 9.20pm
Sun, 13 Sept @ 7.15pm

synopsis
Four overweight friends from the small Israeli city of Ramla are fed up of dieting and being ridiculed and discover the world of Sumo Wrestling, where large people are honored and appreciated. With the help of a Japanese restaurant owner and former Sumo coach in Japan, they decide to pursue a new goal of becoming Sumo Wrestlers and eventually fall in love with the sport. The result is a sweet, touching, funny, and relatable story of self-acceptance and determination.

The film was a breakout hit at the New York Tribeca Film Festival 2009 and has been acquired English-language remake rights. The film was also screened at Cannes 2009 and was the opening film for the Jerusalem International Film Festival 2009.

Directors
Sharon Maymon a graduate of “Camera Obscura” school of the Arts in Tel Aviv. During his studies he directed the award-winning shorts Holes and Mortgage, which won the award for best drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival. In 2005 he wrote for the Israeli television comedy series Sketch Show.

Erez Tadmor graduated from the department of Film and Television at the "Camera Obscura" school of Art in Tel Aviv in the year 1999..Erez has made seven films - with 2 shorts films (Moosh and Strangers - co-directed with Guy Nattiv) and won 25 Awards in the most prestigious Film Festivals. Erez Tadmor is amongst the most talented young movie directors in Israel.

Showtimes:
Thu, 10 Sept @ 7.15pm
Sat, 12 Sept @ 3pm
Sun, 13 Sept @ 9.20pm

synopsis

When a kibbutz (collective community village) in Israel’s north goes broke, the members of the community sell land and property to land developers leaving behind a dozen elderly kibbutz members living in the community’s old age home. The 12 feisty elders join together and vow to fight those who wish to destroy the kibbutz in the name of Capitalism. The Galilee Eskimos explores one of the most persistent themes of Israeli society, the Kibbutz and its pioneering spirit. An engaging comedy which brings across a statement of dignity, self worth and a charming affirmation of ‘can-do’ spirit that transcends age and time.

The film was screened at the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival and won the Audience Award at the at the Berlin Jewish Film Festival.

Showtimes:
Fri, 11 Sept @ 9.20pm
Sun, 13 Sept @ 3pm
Wed, 16 Sept @ 7.15pm

synopsis

This award winning tragicomic road movie tells the story of two Israeli car salesmen, Shmuel and Siso, who spend their life savings on a 1985 collector's-edition Lincoln Continental limousine. The two men take the car to Germany intending to resell it for a tidy profit. For these two Israelis, the route they follow to Germany proves considerably more difficult than anticipated. In addition to finding themselves in the midst of a series of misadventures that turn their dreams of riches into a near-nightmare, Shmuel and Siso must deal with their memories of the Holocaust and they experience a range of intense emotions. Metallic Blues is a 90-minute cinematic journey down the road of friendship, forgiveness, reconciliation and laughter.

Director
Danny Verete began his career as both a writer and director in 1981. e immediately received recognition for the 35-minutes short Wall Within a City (1981). Verete teamed – up with the director Daniel Waxman for Hammsin (1982). The film won an Israeli Oscar and Best Israeli Film of Decade and numerous other awards abroad. His first feature film is Koko is 19 (1985). His second feature as a director, Yellow Asphalt (2000), was shown at several international festivals and won the special jury prize in Cologne.

Showtime:
Mon, 14 Sept @ 7.15pm

synopsis

Tarek is a young Palestinian Arab who leaves the Arab city of Tul Karem and arrives in Tel Aviv as a suicide bomber. He arrives in the market to blast himself, but the device will not go off. He then seeks help from an old Israeli electrician, to fix the bad switch. The electrician welcomes Tarek into his home where he meets Keren, a young girl of an orthodox family, a runaway, trying to start her own life. They discover love. He shares his innermost fears and secrets with her, letting her into his tragic life. Now, with a heavy deadly load of explosives strapped to him, Tarek will spend the next 48 hours in the city. Throughout that weekend, caught between the men that sent him, who can blow him to pieces through the remote mobile phone strapped to his deadly belt and the Israeli police patrolling the streets looking for hiding terrorists, Tarek will meet more characters from the outskirts of Israeli society and ties his fortune with them. All that time hiding his deadly mission. When the weekend is over, he has to make the decision of his life...

The film won the Audience Award at the International Moscow Film Festival 2008 and the Cinequest Film Festival , California and the Grand Prix (Best Film) award at the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria 2009. It has also been screened at the Montreal , Hamburg and New York (Hampton) international film festivals.

Director
Dror Zahavi, a graduate of Hochschule for Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. He graduated with the film Alexander Penn - "Ich will sein in allem" which was nominated for a student Oscar in 1988. He has since directed numerous television movies as well as episodes of television series, such as "Die Maenner vom K 3" and "Doppelter Einsatz". In 1999 he received the German Television Award, Deutscher Fernsehpreis, and the Bavarian Television Award, Bayerischer Fernsehpreis. Recently directed the television mini series "Luftbruecke" and "Schliemann und Sophia" both for the German SAT 1.

Showtimes:
Sat, 12 Sept @ 7.15pm
Tue, 15 Sept @7.15pm

synopsis

The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?

The film won the Best Foreign Film Award at the 2000 British Independent Film Awards. In the US it won the 2000 Freedom of Expression Award with the National Board of Review. It was nominated at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival in the Golden Palm Catergory and also won Best Asian Screenplay at the 2000 Singapore International Film Festival.